Breaking news from the American College of Cardiology meetings

30. March 2008 William Davis (1)
The American Heart Association (AHA) was kind enough to send me an e-mail headlining the breaking news from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meetings underway in Chicago:


ISAR-REACT 3
A Randomized, Double-Blind, Active-Controlled, Multi-Center Trial (ISAR-REACT 3) of Bivalirudin Versus Unfractionated Heparin in Troponin-Negative Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Interventions After Pre-Treatment With 600 mg of Clopidogrel

TRITON - TIMI 38 Stent Analysis
Prasugrel Compared to Clopidogrel in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes Undergoing PCI With Stenting: The TRITON - TIMI 38 Stent Analysis

Percutaneous Coronary Interventions in Facilities without On-Site Cardiac Surgery (NCDR)

(And four other similar reports)


Let's meld the ACC headlines with the financial headlines:

July 2, 2007
The Medicines Company announces reacquisition of all marketing rights to bivalirudin, anticoagulant growing in use for coronary angioplasty and related procedures. 2008 sales anticipated to be in the $15-20 million range, to grow to $90-110 million, a growth rate of 50% per year.


November 20, 2007
Drug manufacturing giant, Eli Lilly, vies for a portion of the $5 billion (annual revenues) oral anti-platelet market, now occupied by Plavix, with its newer, but questionably better, agent, prasugrel.


Growth of the coronary angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI) doesn't ordinarily make headlines, but the performance of specific companies within the industry does. Angioplasty and cardiac device maker (inc. the drug-coated stent, Taxus), Boston Scientific, for instance, announced record sales of $8.537 billion for 2007, an increase of $536 million. How to grow this market? We could always hope for more people with heart attacks or other unstable symptoms. Or, we could . . . increase the number of hospitals capable of PCI! Brilliant.


The money behind this push for procedures is staggering. It drives enormous marketing efforts, pays Washington lobbyists, pays for many nice dinners and trips for doctors who engage in the system, and pays for very costly research.

And the AHA and ACC are kind enough to let us know about these great pieces of news.
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Comments (1) -

  • Anonymous

    02/04/2008 12:28:00 |

    The Isar-React3 study supposedly was done by non-biased researchers in Germany.  Other articles have raised criticism of the findings.  Do not know the outcome of the meeting.

    Other drug research was also presented related to high blood pressure medicines.  Combination drugs with supposed less side effects were in the news.  All it takes is a study being presented at a prestigious group meeting to hit the news, and voila--consumers run to their doctors asking for it.  The articles don't say who is sponsoring the research and other ties....and side effects of some drugs aren't known until they've been on the market for a while.

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Where do Track Your Plaque membership revenues go?

Where do Track Your Plaque membership revenues go?

26. December 2008 William Davis (9)
People pay about $90 per year to become Members on the Track Your Plaque website. This provide access to our in-depth Special Reports, guides, webinars, and our proprietary software data tracking tools. Members can also participate in online discussions, such as those in the Track Your Plaque Forum and chats.

Why is there a charge for membership in the program and where does the money go?

Money raised from membership fees goes towards:

1) The costs of doing business, e.g., server fees, software purchases, legal fees. Hosting webinars, for instance, costs us about $99 per month for the GoToWebinar software service.

2) Software development--Our most recent round of software data tracking tools, for instance, cost us nearly $30,000. That may not be a lot from big business standards, but it is onerous enough that obtaining membership dues really helps.

3) Graphics development--A website without graphics would be awfully dull, regardless of the quality of the textual content. Some of the newest tools on the Track Your Plaque website require photography and graphics work, which can add up very quickly.


Where membership fees do NOT go:

1) In our pockets--In fact, except for the various contractors who are paid for their services (e.g., software developers), NOBODY on the Track Your Plaque staff are paid: not me, nor any of the behind-the-scenes staff. Some of the staff overlap with my office staff, but they are paid purely out of the office revenues, not out of Track Your Plaque membership dues.

2) Towards overhead costs beyond those listed above--For example, membership fees do not pay for office lease, utilities, phones, etc.


We rely on membership fees because we have chosen to remain as free of commercial bias as possible. We host no advertising, we have no behind-the-scenes corporate or institutional agendas, we show no favoritism to any business or commercial operation. We believe this permits editorial freedom that few other health websites can enjoy. (In fact, I know of no other that is so free of commercial bias, outside of small blogs or narrow-interest websites.)

If you want to see what damage commercial bias can create, just go to a health website like WebMD. I challenge you to find information that is not flagrantly biased by commercial influence, namely that of the drug industry. (According to the WebMD SEC filings, in fact, the great majority--approximately 80%--of their $331 million revenues (2007) were derived directly or indirectly from the drug industry.) This commercial bias reaches into all of WebMD's related businesses, including MedicineNet.com, RxList.com, Medscape.com, and several others.

Preventing heart disease is not a money maker, sad to say. It is, from the perspective of conventional heart care, a big money loser. Undergo a heart catheterization, hospitalization, stent or bypass for anywhere from $14,000 to well over $100,000---or pay $90 for in-depth health information that dramatically reduces the potential need for the hospital and its procedures, minimizes need for prescription medication (statins alone, of course, are a $27 billion annual revenue phenomenon), and achieves all this by maximizing nutrition, self-purchased nutritional supplements, and inexpensive heart scans. Nobody is going to make a bundle off of this approach.

So that is why we charge a membership fee. I often get a laugh from some of the comments of people on this blog or even in my office who believe that we are rolling in money from the website from membership dues. The opposite is true: We don't pay ourselves. Virtually every penny is reinvested back into the website to better serve the Members.
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Comments (9) -

  • steve

    12/26/2008 6:29:00 PM |

    aren't you coming out with a new edition of your book?  Clearly it will be cheaper than a yearly membership, and hopefully will contain all the info. shown on TYP membership site; otherwise it would be in some respects short changing the reader. Why not just buy the updated book to get current info at less expensive price?

  • virginia

    12/27/2008 5:01:00 AM |

    thanks. i have linked you via my blog...found you at fanaticcook.

  • Bob Parks

    12/27/2008 6:20:00 PM |

    you wrote:

    "approximately 80%--of their $331 revenues (2007)"

    That has to be a typo, $331 million maybe?

    Bob

  • Anonymous

    12/27/2008 6:23:00 PM |

    The dues I've paid to be a TYP member, and the wealth of unbiased and cutting edge information I've derived there from, are  some of the BEST preventive healthcare dollars I could have spent.

    My co-pays for a stay in the hospital or trip to the cath lab could pay for many years of membership in TYP.  My bet is that the information I've derived from Track Your Plaque will keep me away from those scary places... or give me my best shot if I should ever have to go there.

    To my knowledge, there is no other website that provides such a wealth of information, and the tools to use it, for such a low subscription fee.

    Dr. Davis you do an extraordinary job with the TYP website, thank you for all you do!  Your work is sincerely appreciated.

    Happy New Year to you, and to Track Your Plaque website staff and members.

    madcook
    Houston, TX

  • Richard Nikoley

    12/27/2008 8:25:00 PM |

    For what it's worth, Doc Davis, I never had a doubt.

    Not that it would have mattered anyway. Would that the financial rewards went to those most and not least deserving and that such would be welcomed with open arms by the beneficiaries of your revolutionary, life-saving approach.

    I salute you, sir.

  • Dr. William Davis

    12/29/2008 1:39:00 AM |

    Thanks for catching that, Bob.

  • Anonymous

    12/29/2008 4:34:00 AM |

    Please keep the fee high enough to keep the information unbiased and to keep out those who do not understand the power of the information and would dilute the message.

  • Anonymous

    12/29/2008 5:30:00 AM |

    Steve, the Track Your Plaque book and the Track Your Plaque website are two quite different things.

    I have the first edition of the TYP book (and have given away copies to friends who discovered they have coronary artery disease). I have been a TYP member for some time. I also intend to buy the new edition of the book when it is out (and I will continue to give out copies to people I know who discover they have CAD).

    The new Track Your Plaque book will have Dr. Davis' updated observations, the latest (evolved) version of the program, and more, and should be current, at least as of the date of publication.

    The Track Your Plaque website is both comprehensive and interactive:  The latest aspects of the program are there, as well as extensive information and articles about each aspect of TYP strategies, AND it will be updated over time as new strategies evolve.  In addition there are new interactive tools to track your blood work and tell you how well you are doing with your program and your heart scan scores.  There are also wonderful forums where TYP members can post questions, and receive information and advice from other members, as well as Dr. Davis and some of his staff, in a very supportive atmosphere.

    There is nothing like the TYP membership website, not even a brand new updated edition of the TYP book, and it is, for my money, a bargain.

    Hope this helps!

    madcook

  • pamojja

    11/15/2009 3:57:47 PM |

    are there other options to join TrackYourPlaque other than with credit cards?

    I don't want to get one for just this purpose, especially not in times of the big credit crunch.

    Thanks for any suggestions.

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